Eyes and Ears - 03/10/2008

The Antiquer and I went book shopping yesterday - a secondhand book shop in North Perth is having a closing down sale: 90% off everything! The A is good to go on the hunt with as he's quite patient and thorough and he found me some good books that I overlooked in my hit-and-miss style. Afterwards we saw his friend Initials in the Tree, who clearly leaves The Antiquer's bookish ways in the dust as he was appalled that at 90% off we hadn't bought the whole shop. Between us I think we counted him mentioning it about three times.

[I believe IitT is now a reader of the blog. "Hello, IitT," she said coyly.]

But I haven't been reading any old books lately. Just new books, with their delicious new-book smell.

Reading:
So I dried my eyes from reading Papa Hemingway - which probably had me thinking a bit too much about Papa Bloody Ern - and moved on to Graffiti My Soul by Niven Govinden. He was nearly undone by the stupid quote on the front of the book: "A modern-day Hanif Kureshi." Forgive my curmudgeonly ways but isn't Hanif Kureshi modern-day?? Well, perhaps not if you're fifteen. I picked this up in the bargain bin at Oxford St Books and I'm so glad I did because it was fabulous, dahlings. The story of Veerapeen, a running star, his doomed friendship-romance with his friend Moon Suzuki, and the trials of being a Tamil-Jew high schooler in Surrey. This book is genuinely funny and cynical and has some nice moments of lightly-drawn insight, and you're never allowed to forget you're being told a story by a fifteen-year-old:

When I make my entrance into the main changing room proper, hair slicked back, towel wrapped low around my hip bone, a thin line of pube just visible above the yellow terry cloth, the room is empty, aside form a couple of fatties (they'd call themselves muscular distance runners 'cos they've done weights, but they're fatties to anyone else). Peter Platinum, Under 17s champ, also passes through, or should that be prances through. Runs like a woman on and off the track. All the real dudes are on trackside starting their warm-up. Major disappointment. I look fit when I'm wet. The two fatties aren't interested. They take one look and go to the showers, where they're probably going to bum each other furiously.

The back of the book says that it's "hip, rich, big-hearted and unforgettable." It seems this year that everywhere I turn various forms of writing are being lauded as "rich". I don't know what that means. I know when I've eaten a rich meal because I have to unbutton my pants, but this book didn't leave me feeling that way; it left me feeling like my pants fit just right.

The other book I've read this week is The Seance by John Harwood. This is good stuff. A young girl in Victorian-era England is bequeathed a derelict old house and a mystery with it. Harwood uses enough language to set and maintain the scene without alienating the reader. His book moves between three narratives and he manages to write in a convincing voice for each of them.

I don't know what I'm moving on to next. Something other than Teaching Principles and Practice, I hope.

Top 5 Songs:
The Drowners by Suede
Oh, Negresse by John Delafose
After the Blackbird Sings by The Wallflowers
Saint Joe on the Schoolbus by Marcy Playground
Universe by Big 5